Diet & Health

July 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1994:

A 10-month study published in the

June issue of Cancer Causes and Control, the

journal of the Harvard School of Public Health,

found that children who eat more than 12 hot dogs

a month whose fathers have a history of similar

consumption have nine times the normal risk of

leukemia. The study compared 232 leukemia

patients under age 10 with a similar group of

leukemia-free children. Wrote Dr. John Peters,

who led the University of Southern California

study team, “These findings, if correct, suggest

that reduced consumption of hot dogs could

reduce leukemia risks, especially in those con-

suming the most. Until further studies are com-

pleted and this issue becomes clearer, it may be

prudent for parents to consider reducing consump-

tion of hot dogs for themselves and their children

where consumption frequencies are high.” About

2,600 children a year get leukemia; 72% survive.

Laboratory animals: rodent and bird verdict reversed

July 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1994:

The U.S. Court of Appeals in late

May struck down a 1992 federal court ruling that

Congress meant the Animal Welfare Act to

apply to rats, mice, and birds, exempted by the

USDA since 1971. Declining to hear arguments,

the court held that the Humane Society of the

U.S. had no standing to bring the case because it

could not prove it is harmed by the USDA policy

in question. ““We intend to petition the Appeals

Court for a rehearing based on errors in the rul-

ing,” said Martin Stephens, Humane Society of

the U.S. vice president for laboratory animal

programs. Stephens dismissed the precedential

import of the verdict on standing, but Valerie

Stanley of the Animal Legal Defense Fund, the

lead attorney in the case, told the Chronicle of

Higher Education that it means, in effect, that

no animal protection organization may sue to

protect laboratory animals.

Vets talk about low-cost neutering: PART TWO OF A NEW NATIONAL STUDY

July 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1994:

PORT WASHINGTON, New York––The issue is money. Most veterinarians

want to be paid more for neutering cats and dogs, most pet keepers think they already pay too

much, and most animal control and rescue workers feel caught in the squeeze, trying to talk

veterinarians into neutering for less in order to convince the public to neuter as many animals

as is necessary to stop population control killing.

That’s no news to anyone who reads ANIMAL PEOPLE. The real news, emerg-

ing from a national survey done by ANIMAL PEOPLE for the Spay USA program of the

North Shore Animal League, is that much of the friction could be reduced or ended.

FILM REVIEWS

July 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1994:

Early-Age Spay/Neuter, distributed by Cats In

Need of Human Care (POB 431, Pomona, CA 91769,

attn. Tiffany Curry). $10.00, or $13.00 including addi-

tional information for veterinarians.

“I began early-age neutering in early 1988,”

recalls veterinarian W.M. Mackie in a commentary distrib-

uted with the Early-Age Spay/Neuter video. “By the summer

of 1989, the Coalition for Pets in Los Angeles assigned

Phyllis Daugherty to video me in a show-and-tell. It is an

amateur production,” Mackie acknowledges of the newly

released product. But the technical faults don’t get in the way

of the message. “The purpose,” Mackie continues, “is to

show my anesthesia protocol and to demonstrate that the skill

required is not extraordinary. Shown quite clearly is that

recovery of youthful patients is quick.”

ANIMAL HEALTH

July 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1994:

Zoonosis

Tests by the Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit have

concluded that the only sure way to prevent allergic reactions

to cats is “to remove the cat from the home,” Dr. Charles

Klucka recently told the American Academy of Allergy and

Immunology. “The next best thing is keeping the cat out of

the bedroom,” while the cat owner takes allergy drugs or

shots. Bathing cats in distilled water, applying a topical

spray 60 times per week, and giving them low-dose tranquil-

izers, all touted as antiallergen treatments, did not reduce the

dander of the 24 cats included in the Ford Hospital study.

Ten thousand volunteers in Connecticut, New

Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, and Wisconsin are field-

testing a Lyme disease vaccine developed by Connaught

Laboratories, following up on a 1992-1993 test that included

300 people. Preliminary data published in the June 8 edition

of the Journal of the American Medical Association showed

that levels of Lyme antibodies increased fourfold in 23 of 24

volunteers who participated in a limited test in Albuquerque,

none of whom suffered serious side effects. A rival firm,

SmithKline Beecham PLC, is reportedly also close to testing

a vaccine for Lyme disease, which afflicts about 10,000

Americans a year, and has been found in 44 of the 50 states.

Anti-rodeo vet was performer

July 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1994:

BURLINGTON, Vermont– –

“I raced two of my horses at local

rodeos,” veterinarian Peggy Larson

recalls of her youth in North Dakota,

“and often rode other people’s horses in

races. I also rode bareback bucking

horses for two years at local rodeos.

Once I rode a steer. Damned near killed

myself.”

Now an outspoken rodeo critic,

Larson remained involved in rodeo long

after becoming a veterinarian. “Duane

Howard, a national champion bull and

saddle bucking horse rider, was a client

of mine,” she recalls. “He was retired

from rodeo because of a serious injury

which left him partially deaf and ataxic.

He also rode in the same small town

rodeos where I rode.”

Agricultural veterinary medicine

June 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1994:

The trade journal Beef Today and the

Colorado Cattlemen’s Association have urged the beef

industry to join animal protection groups in urging the

USDA to abolish face-branding cattle imported from

Mexico. The cattle are painfully face-branded––and cows

are spayed without anesthesia––as part of an anti-bovine

tuberculosis program. Of 438 cases of bovine TB found in

1993, 427 were in cattle of Mexican origin. Exposed in an

ongoing series of newspaper ads by the Coalition for Non-

Violent Food, face-branding was also discussed recently by

the Animal Welfare Committee of the AVMA. AVMA

policy presently supports face-branding, but related pro-

posed policy amendments are up for review by the AVMA

executive board.

AVMA says mad cow disease won’t hurt public

June 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1994:

SCHAUMBERG, Illinois––University of San

Francisco researchers led by Dr. Stanley Pruisiner reported

on April 22 that they have discovered how disease-carrying

agents called prions replicate, a key step toward finding a

way to fight scrapie, a fatal brain disease of sheep and

goats, and bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), bet-

ter known as “mad cow disease.” More than 100,000

British cattle have been destroyed due to BSE since 1986,

while isolated cases have appeared in seven other nations.

The spring 1994 Farm Sanctuary newsletter

meanwhile asserted that “At least two British dairy farmers

whose cows had BSE, and who had been drinking milk

from their herds, died from CJD, the human counterpart to

mad cow disease…There is evidence to suggest that BSE

has existed in the United States for some time. In 1985,

several thousand mink at a Wisconsin fur farm died of

transmissible mink encephalopathy (TME) which was

caused by their diet, primarily ‘downer’ cows. Research

done in the U.S.,” Farm Sanctuary continued, “has linked

BSE with the use of ‘downer’ cows… Scientists are now

concerned that the disease currently referred to by the U.S.

meat and dairy industries as ‘downer cow syndrome’ could

actually be BSE.”

AGRICULTURE

June 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1994:

The USDA on April 26 announced yet another pro-

posal to raise grazing fees on federal land. This version would

boost the base fee to $3.96 per head-month by 1997, but would

provide incentive discounts for ranchers who undertake various

forms of conservation and/or rangeland improvement.

Comments will be reviewed until July 28. An Environmental

Protection Agency impact study published May 18 estimated that

current management practices would bring a 3% decline over the

next 20 years in stream quality in the affected habitat, while the

proposed changes would bring a 27% improvement.

A National Agricultural Statistics Service survey of

the 10 largest corn-producing states, which raise 80% of the total

U.S. corn crop, reports that less than 1% is lost to wildlife. The

average loss per acre is 0.66 bushels. Of the 35.4 million bushels

eaten by wild animals, deer eat 13.9 million, while birds eat 9.6

million. The 1993 crop came to 5.14 billion bushels in all.

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